30 April 2012

Atlanta Police Make Arrest in 2010 Black Gay Pride Double Murders

The Atlanta Police Department has made an arrest in the gruesome double murder that happened over 2010 Black Gay Pride. Twenty-one-year-old Samuel Blizzard Jr. and 26-year-old Calvin Streater were shot execution-style on September 5. Both men attended Black Gay Pride events over the weekend, police say.

Derrick Dnorris Burden was apprehended last week and charged with two counts of homicide, reports the Journal-Constitution.

Atlanta Police Department’s fugitive unit picked up the 22-year-old Burden on Monday, authorities said. Information about the motive for the killings and how investigators were led to Burden was not immediately available.

The night of the slayings, police were called to the home of Streater, 26, in the Richmond Hill Apartments, where Blizzard, a 21-year-old Georgia State University criminal justice major, was staying temporarily. Both men were found shot dead. Investigators believed the men knew their killer, police said at the time.

The September 2010 murders happened at a gated complex. Police said at the time that there was "no sign of forced entry" and apparently the victims knew the assailants. One year ago in April 2011, police released a sketch of a potential suspect. The man in the sketch "was seen with the two victims the day they were killed."

Investigators believe Burden may have known one of the victims casually. ... Burden declined to give a statement about the crime to police. "But based on everything that I know up to this point, it seems like it was just a crime of opportunity and more robbery-based or theft-based," Detective Michael Willis said. Willis said "forensic evidence," which he declined to specify, led police to Burden. Witnesses also aided in the investigation and may be eligible for a reward, he said.

At the time of the killings, Blizzard's father said the apartment belonged to a cousin but denied that his son would have "anything" to do with Black Gay Pride.

Police confirmed both men were apparently gay. "We have learned in fact they attended some Black Gay Pride activity that day," Atlanta Police Department spokesman Carlos Campos said in September 2010. "There is no evidence the shooting deaths had anything to do with the fact the men were at a gay event," he said and added there was no evidence this "was a bias crime."

Burden is being held without bond on charges including two counts each of murder, felony murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.